Sport-competitions are a fixture of life. For the players, a sport competition is the arena in which their countless hours of practice can be put to the test, and from which they hope to emerge as a victor. For the spectators, a tournament creates endless speculation as to which factors will help a team to win, or cause them to lose, with near-immediate experimentation to see which theory proves true.
Younger players enjoy tournaments, such as from middle school to high school age, as an exciting experience and a time of camaraderie. Baseball and softball are common sports for tournaments.
Baseball as a sport has changed little since the invention of the modern baseball field in 1845 by Alexander Cartwright. But despite the recent introduction of technology into the game, amateur baseball has struggled to maintain or increase participation levels. Players leave the sport for many reasons, but in particular they leave due to: excess game length and time needed to complete a game, the need for a large number of players to play the game, the lack of actual game action, and the slow pace of play. Each has caused players to leave the game because compared to many other sports, the game has just stopped being fun.
The drawback of the current tournament system is the required investment of large blocks of time by players, parents and organizers. With increased quantities of teams, each game requires hours of time, and thus separating out the best teams takes time. The result is tournaments that are many days in length. Given the length, participation becomes limited, and thus growth of the tournament system has suffered.
In addition, baseball and softball tournaments are taxing on a particular member of the team—the pitcher. Pitching is an activity that is stressful on a player's body. Resting between pitching sessions is highly recommended by research and sports medical practitioners, but with a multi-day tournament such resting is impractical.
What is needed is a tournament system that speeds up the process of games, shortens the time it takes to complete a game, gives the players more action, combines physical elements and real-world player skills, while merging with the virtual world that has become popular in today's society. The result allows large, multi-team baseball and softball tournaments to be completed in three days or less.